With the looming end of Fringe threatening to leave NBC's Revolution (should it survive) the only high-concept J.J. Abrams show on TV, Abrams has narrowly thwarted such humiliation by selling Fox on a futuristic buddy-cop show that he will executive produce and Fringe showrunner J.H. Wyman will head, thus maintaining stability. The twist: the "buddy" in this scenario is a robot, with every Los Angeles police officer paired with a sophisticated android who, alas, understands neither their human feelings nor their rock 'n' roll radio. This prospective robot buddy-cop show would attempt to succeed where so many others have tried and failed—dueling '70s series Future Cop and Holmes And Yo-Yo, 1992's Mann And Machine, the Friends show-within-a-show Mac And C.H.E.E.S.E.—but J.J. Abrams' company is named Bad Robot, therefore he is an expert. It will also attempt to get on the air before Harlan Ellison can sue them for ripping off "Brillo," so no one tell Harlan Ellison.
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